Federal Front Door

The public’s front door to government services

Overview

Recent research has made clear what many folks have personally experienced: The federal government needs to improve how it interacts with the public. Enter the Federal Front Door, an initiative to improve public-government interactions across the board.

We’re currently exploring projects to improve the quality of experiences and interactions people have with the government. These include efforts to improve transparency in service design, promote information sharing among agencies, and increase people’s trust in the government.

Here, you’ll find the most updated information on our research and progress. Read more about the four themes we’re exploring:

Proxies and information sharing

Many government services don’t allow collaborative interactions, making resources harder to access; we’re researching how to include more interactions by proxy. We’re also investigating how agencies can safely share information with each other in a way that creates better user experiences.

Government transparency

Our research found that folks don’t know what goes on inside the government. This lack of knowledge often translates to a lack of trust, which negatively impacts interactions. We’re focusing on how to provide greater transparency into government processes to improve government-public interactions.

Civic engagement

Getting involved with government at any level means having your voice heard and your views represented. Our work on civic engagement shows how public participation at all levels of government helps people gain empowerment and positively impact their communities.

Research report

All our work is guided by user research — structured conversations with people from varied populations. This research report highlights our lines of inquiry, provides detailed descriptions of what we learned, and raises questions that warrant further study.